The present invention relates generally to holsters for handguns, and is particularly concerned with sight protection devices for holsters to accommodate handguns equipped with front and rear sights, and to protect both the handgun and the holster from wear as a result of abrasion between the sights and internal surfaces of the holster as the gun is repeatedly drawn out of the holster and replaced.
Holstering a handgun that is equipped with sharpened front sights in a holster has been addressed in various ways in the prior art. A large proportion of these inventions have been made since 1960. Prior to this, it was common that handguns intended for use as service weapons were equipped with simple "fixed" front and rear sights for use in holsters and to extend the life of the pistol sights. Those handguns intended for competition or other precision shooting were equipped with adjustable sights and were rarely holstered. These adjustable sights were and are typically of high profile and typically are made with very sharp edges and corners.
The adjustable sight began to find favor for those users who had a need to carry their handguns holstered, such as police uniform officers and participants in new forms of competition shooting. This presented a challenge to holster designers. The goal was to make holsters which accommodated handguns with high or sharp front sights and to protect both the handgun and the holster from wear. An unprotected front sight can catch inside the holster, and can gather debris from the holster during the drawing motion and thereby produce an unsatisfactory sight picture for the user. Also, the sight can be worn bright by the friction against the holster, resulting in an unsatisfactory sight picture for the user, especially a demanding, knowledgeable user such as a competition shooter.
The conventional, traditional holster has a simple fold of leather forming the front of the holster inside which the handgun sight is disposed. Such holsters have been made for handguns since the 19th century, and are adequate for plain handgun sights. Sharp, adjustable, or high-profile sights can rub on the inside of such a holster and abrade both the holster and the sight. In the extreme cases, the front sight of the handgun can catch on the inside of the holster, especially a holster with a soft lining, and may be difficult or impossible to draw. The front sight of the pistol may even become so thoroughly snagged inside the holster lining that the pistol can only be removed by cutting the holster open.
Holsters have also been made by the folding of the holster at the back of the gun and forming a seam in front of the holster in which the handgun's front sight can be disposed. A welt or leather spacer was commonly stitched into this seam to provide a solid rubbing block for the front sight.
Common among makers of competition holsters is the sight rail, which consists of two separate rails of leather which are stitched inside the holster front and often only to the holster's lining. These two rails, when properly spaced, provide effective sight protection by bearing on the top of the pistol and thereby creating a sight groove. However, a labor intensive process is needed to attach the rails, which first must be cut, prepared by skiving the tips if desired, then glued in place after ensuring that the spacing is ideal, and finally stitched in place with heavy-duty stitching machines and with four sets of loose threads to be trimmed.
Holsters are also sometimes made in two pieces, particularly thin holsters intended for concealment applications. This forms a seam all around the gun pocket, with the front seam forming a space for the handgun's front sight. This is adequate for leather construction and for light holsters, but is inadequate for heavy-duty holsters such as used by police officers and is inadequate for many soft fabric holsters.
Another technique involves forming a groove or channel into the front fold of the holster, using pressure. This groove protects the front sight of the handgun. The method is suited to leather or plastic holsters. In an non-reinforced form, the leather is simply molded into a channel. In a reinforced form, the holster is made from two layers of leather with a layer of metal sandwiched between them, and then formed to produce a permanent channel. This has also been used in thermally-shaped plastic holsters.
Another known sight protector is formed by exaggerating the natural fold of the holster to form a distinct pocket for the front sight. This method has been used extensively.
Another little-used method is to place a groove or slot in the holster lining, usually by using two liner halves which are spaced apart to accommodate the front sight. This method is actually ineffective unless the slot is reinforced with skived strips between the layers along each side of the slot, because the holster naturally folds on the weakening slot and closes the slot.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,401,174 of McAuley shows a groove and slot--a keyhole effect--cut into a holster that was made from a solid block of wood or plastic, into which the pistol barrel and sight was inserted. The purpose of the sight groove appears to have been incidental to providing for the fitting of the revolver barrel into the holster block, and to force the revolver itself into a more concealable position. The strain on the front sight's attachment would have been excessive with this design.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,546,774 of Ohlemeyer discloses a sight protector which generally relies on a slot being cut into the front fold of the holster. In one version, a channel member of uniform thickness has a central, sight receiving groove and is placed inside the fold of the holster and stitched along both outermost edges. Once the device is stitched into the holster, the holster is difficult to fold and folding results in distortion of the device. It also does not conform to the shape of different holster designs and individual holsters, nor to individual handguns, nor is it suited to the latest holster technologies such as fabric, padded fabric, nor plastic.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,406,884 of Perkins a grooved member is placed into a seam in the front of the holster. This front seam weakens the holster and adds unwanted bulk, and is unsuited to the fabric and plastic technologies popular for holsters today. In addition, Perkins' device can only be attached to the holster with heavy-duty harness-type stitching machines. The Perkins' inventions' advantage is that it does indeed protect the front sight of the handgun and proved to be commercially successful.
For fabric holsters the challenge was significant. The leading device in this field is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,485,948 of Cook. The Cook patent discloses a strip of nylon or other woven webbing, dipped in a hardening agent to provide spine stiffness for the holster, and stitched in place inside the holster's front fold. As a sight protector this invention actually serves best in the role of protecting the holster from abrasion, and subsequent jamming of the handgun inside the holster. It does not actually provide a protective nest for the sight, but instead provides a protective wear strip for the holster.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,645,103 of Bianchi and Nichols discloses a tubular webbing with a strip of plastic inserted. The stitching of the combined parts to the inside of the holster fold creates an intentional weakness in the plastic; sharply folding the holster serves to fracture the plastic along the stitch lines and creates a shallow channel for the front sight of the handgun. This holster device is all fabric and is unlikely to be used in any holster other than a fabric one; building the component is labor intensive enough--cut the webbing to length, cut the plastic to length, insert the plastic, attach the assembly--that the manufacturer now frequently omits the plastic; and while the protector does perform a function, it does not bear on the top of the handgun to provide a protective pocket for the front sight. This invention is actually a protective wear strip, like the Cook product, while allowing the holster to fold naturally into a rounded cross-section.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,846,383 of Gallagher was developed to compete with two Cook patents which regulate the manufacture of padded fabric holsters. By using an extrusion of plastic for forming both a sight channel and to join two halves of a fabric holster, the inventor was able to produce a padded fabric holster. This method requires that the holster be made in two halves.